


Mending a Broken Heart

by ZoeTheNormalBeing



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: A.K.A if you don't want spoilers don't read past this part, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Forced Keith/Shiro, Getting Together, Half-Galra Keith (Voltron), M/M, Nonbinary Pidge | Katie Holt, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Keith/Lance (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), Rated teen for language, not that Lance knows that otherwise this fic wouldn't be 10k words, spoilers in the tags, that's already tagged in relationships but whatever
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:14:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28016064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZoeTheNormalBeing/pseuds/ZoeTheNormalBeing
Summary: Soulmates.People who are meant to be together as long as possible because they areperfectfor each other.Too bad 1% of the human population failed to get that memo.And, unfortunately enough, Lance was a part of that percent.OrLance learns he's an Unrequited, forced to pine after someone who will never love him back....but who would've thought it was more complicated than that?
Relationships: Hunk & Lance (Voltron), Keith & Lance (Voltron), Keith & Shiro (Voltron), Keith/Lance (Voltron), Keith/Shiro(Forced)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 124





	Mending a Broken Heart

**Author's Note:**

> **DISCLAIMER (With a spoiler in it): There is no permanent Sheith here. This entire story is based around Klance, and Sheith is a temporary ship that is named familial later on. If you came here for Sheith, I suggest you leave, but you can stay if you like. You just probably won't enjoy it.**
> 
> I’m actually not super proud of this but… like the doc this was written on was made on the 21st of June. And now it’s December 16th. I don’t care if this isn’t ‘smooth’ or whatever at this point, I can always fix it so. Yep.
> 
> Anyways, I'm really excited to get this out! I've had it in my docs forever and jeez, I really needed to post something for all the shit I've got started. Seriously. I have like 10 fics. And I actually have to _rewrite_ some of them because they're so old. But, right, for the readers of Dream Pollen, that is one of the fics that is being re-written! I know in the update there it says that I'm gonna write on top of it but I'm not longer sure. I might make a collection? If you read the fic and care or whatever then feel free to comment your thoughts. 
> 
> Also, there are a few things I mention but typically I end up making the character know as much as I do so if a character says something bizarre or vague, then that is 100% the character and not me trying to add in stuff I know nothing about. Totally.
> 
> Now onto the fic!

Soulmates.

People who are meant to be together as long as possible because they are _perfect_ for each other.

Too bad 1% of the human population failed to get that memo.

That '1%' are what are called the Unwanteds. This group contains those who don't have a soulmate - Unsouls, those whose soul match did not 'match' - Unmatcheds, those whose soulmates died before meeting them - Incompletes, and those with unrequited soulmates - Unrequiteds.

Lance, unfortunately, is in that 1% and managed to actually be 3% of that 1%. That 3% is the Unrequiteds. Yes, Lance is within a group that makes up 0.03% of the population and dictates the fact that, despite the hope that he built over the years, his soulmate was born to be with someone else.

And it sucks.

He began building hope when he turned 5 - where everyone who has a soulmate gets a colorful mark right along the pulse of their wrist. If it's not colorful… well, your soulmate is not alive (possibly yet, or ever. Soulmates have died before the other got their mark, and it's rather depressing, but it does take up a noticeable enough portion of the Incompletes to be mentioned). Lance, unlike another part of that 1% - Unsouls - had that beautiful mark. And unlike another portion of that 1% - Incompletes - it was vibrant with color.

That left Lance in the 99.81% of the population, since he could still be in the Unrequiteds or the Unmatcheds (and yes, the Unmatched take up an entire 78% of the Unwanteds). But, as do most people, he believed that he was simply in the 99% or the 0.78%. No one seems to think of the poor Unrequiteds.

Once Lance got into the Garrison, he stopped focusing so much on his soulmate and focused on becoming the best pilot known to mankind - other than Takashi Shirogane, of course.

Then he was shot into space in a sentient robot-lion and things went to shit.

At first, the only ones he was truly close to were Pidge and Hunk. Shiro, Allura, Coran, and Keith were the ones that he wasn't close to at the beginning, but that quickly changed. At least for three of them.

Lance pulled out that rivalry with Keith as much as he could until he simply couldn't anymore, and finally they got close.

And Lance felt _it_ the moment they became close enough. The unmistakable bond of soulmates, the feeling that people write stories and wax poetic about. The feeling of completion and perfection.

That was the day he found out about how he was 0.03% of the population.

♡|♡

Lance walked into the main room to find Keith sitting on the weird, giant, circular couch. Lance immediately plopped down beside him, peering over his shoulder at his tablet.

"What'cha doin'?" Lance asked, inspecting the text below.

"I'm reading some of the logs of when Alfor was building the lions, I'm hoping that there's something here that could help."

"Cool," Lance said, staying silent for a moment before speaking again. "How's that going?"

"Terrible," Keith said, plopping the tablet down beside him. "I really should leave this tech shit to Pidge and Hunk. Hell, even Coran and Allura. At least they mildly understand Altean technology."

Lance let out a soft laugh.

"Sound like you need a break, buddy," Lance says, looking at Keith with a smile in his eyes and Keith turns to him with such a genuine expression that Lance can’t explain and-

Lance's world simultaneously implodes and explodes. It feels like his heart is on fire and his mark is burning and holy shit-

This is _it_. This is the soulmate feeling.

Lance opens his mouth to speak, ecstatic that he's finally met his soulmate when-

"Yeah," Keith says, frowning. "Think I'm gonna go visit Shiro," Keith continues, standing up and Lance...

Lance slowly has the realization that Keith did not feel what Lance did.

His heart drops to his feet and he feels like he just went back to 2014 and did the Ice Bucket Challenge.

"Oh," Lance says, voice cracking so he clears his throat. "Cool, uh, why Shiro, though? I mean, I'm right here."

"Meh," Keith says, shrugging. "I have no doubt that you'd successfully refresh me or whatever, but being with your soulmate is rejuvenating in itself so-"

"Soulmate?" Lance says, voice cracking again. This time he does nothing to mask it and Keith looks at him weird.

"Yeah, my soulmate, Shiro. Didn't you know? I mean, your entire thing is reading people, isn't it?"

"Oh, platonic?"

"Romantic."

Lance chokes on air.

"What?" Lance asks once he recovers his breath. "You guys always gave me a brother vibe-"

"That’s stupid."

"What?"

“I mean, we don’t even look that much alike-"

"No, no, I meant your actions always screamed brotherly to me. Like, adopted brothers," Lance corrects, distracted.

Keith looks at him for a moment before giving a blunt response.

"Well, they're not brotherly," Keith says before exiting, leaving a shattered Lance in the main room.

Hunk walks in a few minutes later, seeing his best bud in shock. Hunk has seen it before, mainly when Lance got accepted into the Garrison, but the entire time Lance had this happy glint in his eye.

This shock is so different.

Instead of a happy glint in his eye, there's not a glint. Lance looks sort of… horrified? And Hunk knows something bad happened.

Hunk runs over to the couch and sits down next to Lance, and at this distance Hunk can see that there is a glint in his eye - but it's from not-yet-fallen tears.

"Lance?" Hunk questions, and Lance looks in his general direction, eyes distant and unseeing.

"Yeah?" Lance questions, more quiet and far more emotionless than normal.

"What happened?"

"Nothing," Lance mumbles in return.

Of course, even when having some sort of mental breakdown, Lance would pretend he's fine. It's just classic Lance - Hunk should've known better, known that a simple 'what happened' wasn't going to get him to open up. It's just how Lance operated. If he opened up just like that, then-

"Just had my entire worldview shattered. It's fine."

 _Shit_. 

This… this is bad.

Lance is never sarcastic unless he's trying to be annoying. This is not to be annoying.

"How?" Hunk questions.

"Just found out I'm in 0.03% of the human population," Lance says, before standing up and leaving the room.

Hunk sits there in confusion for a bit, knowing that understanding the source of Lance's trauma is important when a memory flashes to mind.

♡|♡

_"Oh my gosh, Hunk!" Lance yells as he storms into their room._

_"Hm?" Hunk questions, already used to Lance's dramatics._

_"This soulmate class is awesome! I don't think I'm gonna pursue it as a career - space still has my heart - but it's so detailed. It's the one class I actually remember statistics for!" Lance yells out, extremely excited and energized._

_"Oh?" Hunk questions, starting to show genuine interest._

_"Yeah! Did you know that Unwanteds take up an entire percent of the population? And of that percent, 78 out of 100 Unwanteds are Unmatcheds?"_

_"No," Hunk says, "I didn't. That's crazy, though. I can't believe so many people didn't have a good soulmate experience."_

_"I know, right?" Lance questions rhetorically. "And the smallest percentage of the Unwanteds are the Unrequiteds. They only take 0.03% of the population!"_

_"Wow," Hunk says in return, still very interested. "I'm pretty happy that so few experience that. I mean, knowing your soulmate but knowing that they will never feel what you feel must suck."_

_"Yeah," Lance says in return, a slight frown falling across his face. "In general, it's terrible that Unwanteds face such discrimination."_

_"Yeah," Hunk mumbles in return before realizing Lance omitted a bit of information. "What about the Incompletes and Unsouls?"_

_"Oh," Lance answers in reply, perking up again. "The Unsouls take up 0.09% of the population while the Incompletes make up 0.10%."_

_"Huh," Hunk says in return, incredibly interested in this. His soulmark has always been a little wacky, after all. It nearly blends in with his skin color - which hasn't been heard of. They're always a stark contrast against skin color (or grey if their soulmate is dead), never a brown or pale pink - respective to skin color, at least._

_"Anything about mark colors?"_

_"They match your soulmate's 'aura', whatever the fuck that means. Apparently some people see auras or something and the colors always match what color is on their soulmates wrist. One thing that they mentioned, though, is that if that color is too close to grey or someone's skin tone then it'll pick the next best one. I'm sorry you didn't get a good explanation for your mark, there."_

_"It's okay, Lance. I'm an enigma."_

_Lance walks over and pats his shoulder._

_"That you are, and the best enigma I've seen."_

_Hunk smiled at Lance._

_"So," Hunk says, "I guess that means that you have a 99.22% chance that you won't be an Unwanted."_

_"99.19, actually," Lance corrects. "You can't forget the Unrequiteds."_

_"Right," Hunk says in response, "Though I know you won't be one," Hunk says in return. "You're way too amazing to be stuck in a sucky 0.03%."_

_"Aw," Lance says with a wide smile, "Thanks buddy."_

_"Just telling the truth," Hunk says._

♡|♡

" _Fuck_ ," Hunk says to the empty room. "If it is what I think it is, Lance doesn't deserve it," Hunk continues to himself before getting up, determined to console his buddy the best that he can.

And he does, but nothing can mend a broken heart.

~~Something can, but it’s something Lance will never hope for.~~

~~If he does, his heart will shatter.~~

~~And absolutely nothing can mend a shattered heart.~~

♡|♡

"Hey," Pidge says to the room where Lance's life was wrecked. Everyone looks to Pidge, prompting them to continue. "We never seem to talk about soulmates."

Lance immediately stiffens, and doesn't seem to notice how awkward Keith's and Shiro's expressions are.

"Well," Keith says to the room. "Shiro and I are soulmates."

"Oh, that explains why you guys act like brothers all the time," Hunk says with a soft laugh before he lays his eyes upon a wincing Lance, who seems to be bracing for something that Hunk can't figure out.

"Actually," Shiro says, "We're romantic soulmates, we're just not too big on PDA."

Everyone is silent for a moment.

"That's, uh," Pidge says, obviously trying to come up with something to break the silence but not knowing what to say.

A stiff silence fills the room, suffocating its applicants. 

"My soulmate is Shay, actually," Hunk says with a smile, filling the silence Pidge left in their plunder. His smile is weak, but the longer he speaks the more genuine it becomes. "I found out on our last video call. She knew for a while, since Balmerans have an immediate soulmate method, but she kinda panicked when I didn't react so she didn't say anything until I felt _That Feeling_ and told her as such."

A chorus of "that's awesome" and "how cute"'s fill the room.

"My soulmate is Matt," Pidge says next, "and because he isn't ace we kinda assume his soulmate is romantic since it's not me. It technically makes me part of the Unrequiteds, but it doesn't really hurt me like I know it does others since it's only familial." They pull down their sleeve a little and stare at their mark. "I know he's still alive, because my mark is still orange, but it seems to get more dull as the days go on. I'm really hoping it will return to it's previous vibrancy soon."

Everyone stays silent for a moment before Lance breaks it.

"I'm an Unwanted, too."

Everyone snaps their head towards him in shock.

"What?" Allura questions. "I know I didn't question it before, simply because I didn't want to interrupt, but what is an Unwanted?"

"Well," Lance says, "99% of the population have requited soulmates and are happy, but 1% of them don't and are called the Unwanteds. There's four different kinds of Unwanteds. 

"Pidge, as they mentioned before, is an Unrequited. That means that the soulmate bond isn't, as the title implies, requited. They’re also the most rare Unwanteds, taking up 0.03% of the population. Typically it's known to have a negative connotation, but as Pidge mentioned before, they aren't all terrible. Unrequiteds are typically made fun of and looked down upon, unfortunately. 

"Unsouls don't have a soulmark and, consequently, don't have a soulmate. They aren't looked down upon that much, mainly because it's pretty difficult to make an Unsoul unhappy with their situation, since most of them are ace or have some sort of personality disorder or a general belief against getting close to others. 

"Unmatcheds, which take up a large portion of Unwanteds, are people who didn't get along with their soulmate. The universe makes mistakes, afterall. Hell, soulmarks completely exclude polyamory, which can be a struggle for people to figure out what they want or need. But, yeah, Unmatcheds simply don't have a romantic or platonic bond with their soulmate. They're heavily looked down upon, and are probably the ones that are treated the worst out of the Unwanteds.

"Finally, there's Incompletes. These are people whose soulmate died before meeting them, meaning that they're scarred with a grey mark with no understanding of who previously stood behind it. Some people it really fucks up, but for the most part they move on with their life, not really bothered since they never knew who they were anyways.

"And, yeah, that's the basics of the soulmate shit," Lance finishes, most of the room staring at him in shock.

"How do you know so much about this stuff, Lance?" Shiro kindly questions.

"I took a soulmate class a little while back and still remember the statistics and shit. I really liked that class."

"That's…" Keith says, trailing off for a moment before continuing. "Impressive."

"Thanks," Lance says in return, not looking Keith in the eye.

"Hey," Hunk interrupts softly, "Allura, can I ask how Altean soulmates work?"

"Sure," Allura says, "but I believe Coran is better at explaining it." 

Coran lights up at this and sits up straight.

"Alteans have a mark that appears around their heart when their soulmate touches them for the first time. Each pair of Soulmates have their own mark."

"Do you guys have anything like Unwanteds?" Pidge asks.

"I suppose so," Coran says, "However it's nearly impossible to know until death, since there's no method to see if you have a soulmate or not, unlike humans."

Everyone nods.

"What about Unrequiteds or Unmatcheds?" Lance questions.

"Alteans don't have such things as Unmatcheds. Unrequiteds, while still existing, are far more rare than what you humans experience. Perhaps evolution has something to do with it, maybe even with that 'polyamory' thing you mentioned. Speaking of which, what is polyamory?"

"Oh," Pidge says, "To put it simply, it's multiple people in a relationship. It's way more complicated than that, but that's a basic breakdown."

Coran looks at Pidge in shock.

"You mean your soulmate bonds don't account for that?"

"Yours do?" Shiro asks.

"Yes," Coran says. "I, myself, had a bond as such, however my soulmate was the one with two marks.” 

Everyone looks at Coran, expecting more to come of this story, but he remains silent and wistful. 

"Okay then," Lance says, holding on to the 'a' for a moment. "How do polyamory marks work with you guys?"

"Ah," Coran says, "One mark will appear on the top of someone's heart while the other will appear on the bottom. Once you get into relationships with three or four people they go to the left and right. The position doesn't mean anything, but some people theorize that it does indeed mean something beyond concepts we understand."

"You mentioned evolution," Keith says. "Does that mean that other highly evolved species can have multiple soulmates?"

"Yes!" Coran chirps, a bright smile on his face. "The Olkarians, for example, can have more than one other being in their mind."

"Woah, woah, woah," Pidge said, interest quickly picking up. "You mean Olkarians share a brain with their soulmate or soulmates?"

"Yes," Coran responds. "It's quite the interesting phenomenon."

The conversation continued like that for a while before Keith presented a question no one expected.

"What about Galran soulmates?"

Coran rubs his chin in thought while the rest of the room shoots Keith mildly confused looks. 

"I'm sure their soulmarks have changed quite a bit over the years, after all we don't have a database to reference from, but I'm sure one thing has remained the same." Coran suddenly turns solemn. "It's extremely difficult for Galrans to find their soulmate. Perhaps it's just because of how Galrans are and their soulmarks accommodated towards it, but overall, as of 10,000 decaphoebs ago, we're unsure."

Everyone nods before Lance snorts.

"No wonder Galra are destroying the universe, they're pissed they can't find their soulmates."

Everyone laughs at that, and Lance smiles, glad to know that even if his soulmate isn't reciprocated, he still has his family in front of him.

♡|♡

Lance walks into one of the common areas one day to see Keith and Shiro kissing.

Lance freezes for a moment, unsure what to do and every inch of him screams 'get out', but before he tries to leave they finish kissing and Shiro acknowledges Lance's presence.

"Hey, Lance," Shiro says, and Lance sees Keith snaps his head around to look towards the doorway, and somehow Keith looks more awkward than Lance feels. "Is there anything you need?"

"Nope," Lance squeaks out. "Just wanted to chill here but I can go somewhere else."

"You can stay here-," Shiro starts.

"No, no," Lance quickly responds. "I insist," he continues, with slightly too much bite.

Lance turns around and gets the fuck out of there before his tears start to fall.

♡|♡

Lance knows it's stupid.

But somewhere, deep down in his bones, he was hoping that they were joking, that they weren't actually together. That they never kissed.

Again, Lance's worldview shatters.

And again, Lance knows it's his fault.

He should really stop getting his hopes up.

♡|♡

"Lance?" Said man hears called from outside his door.

Lance opens the door to see Keith there, who's extremely nervous.

Lance tilts an eyebrow in confusion.

"You okay, dude?" Lance asks, and that same second Keith barges into the room.

"Sure, come in," Lance says, sarcastically, shutting the door. "Make yourself at home."

"Would you please shut up?" Keith asks from Lance's bed, and Keith's knee is shaking so much that Lance drops his sarcasm and goes to sit next to Keith.

"What's going on?" Lance asks, concern leaking out of him.

"You mentioned that you were an Unwanted a while back," Keith says, knee still bouncing and Lance freezes.

"Yeah..?" Lance sort-of asks, extremely afraid of what's about to come.

"Then do you know what it feels like to be an Unrequited or Unmatched?"

"Why do you care?" Lance immediately snaps out, getting defensive.

Keith winces, immediately noticing he broached a touchy topic.

"I just want to know what it's like," Keith mumbles.

Lance starts to relax ever-so-slightly.

"Why do you need to know? You have Shiro," Lance says, putting slight venom into Shiro's name that goes unnoticed by Keith.

"I-" Keith takes in a breath, hesitating. He readjusts his position a little, bringing his legs off the floor. If Keith didn't look so conflicted Lance definitely would've yelled at him for getting dirt from his boots all over his sheets. "You can't tell anyone about this, okay?" Keith asks, not meeting Lance's eyes.

"Okay," Lance said, trying to catch a look at Keith's face.

"No one." Keith continues before pausing in thought for a moment. "Especially not Shiro."

"Okay…" Lance says again, more hesitant. Lance wants to ask why Keith singled out Shiro, but he knows Keith already has a lot on his mind.

Keith's brows furrow for a moment before he looks to the right wall, showing Lance the back of his head.

"How did you know you were an Unwanted?" Keith softly asked.

"Since we're apparently having a conversation we're telling no one about, I'm only telling _you_ this, okay?" Lance asks, already regretting his decision.

Keith nods in agreement. Now, only to make the wording as vague as possible.

“I had my soulmate bond reaction, but my soulmate did nothing, and didn’t act any differently. I’m an Unrequited.”

“Ouch,” Keith says. “That sounds like it sucks.”

“It does,” Lance simply responds.

“So I guess you don’t know anything about Unmatcheds from personal experience?”

“No,” Lance says, before narrowing his eyes. “Why?”

“Nevermind-” Keith starts, getting off the bed, before Lance grabs his arm.

“Wait, you don’t need to tell me anything,” Lance says, already hating himself for being so weak as to let this conversation continue. 

“Fine,” Keith says warily, and sits back on Lance’s bed.

A tense silence fills the room for a moment.

“You seem to know a lot about soulmates,” Keith says.

“I do. Remember, I took a class about it?”

“Right.”

Silence continues.

“Have you ever heard of an unrequited and unmatched bond occurring in the same relationship?” Keith asks, just barely off from saying it as one long word.

Lance blinks for a second in shock. Why would Keith need to know that?

Unless…?

Nope, not getting his hopes up. Not worth it.

“Not really, but I’m sure it’s happened. The soulmate system has so many flaws and so many social requirements that chances are issues that occur haven’t been recorded. So,” Lance continues. “By an unrequited and unmatched bond, do you mean, like, someone has an unrequited soulmate but they also happen to not have feelings for them?”

“No,” Keith says, everything about him slowing down, knee stopping movement, and he looks towards his feet. “Someone being unmatched to someone else but that person not being unmatched to them.”

“Wait,” Lance says, “Like person A likes person B and they’re soulmates, but person B doesn’t like person A?”

“Yeah.”

“Um,” Lance says, “You don’t have to answer, but is this supposed to apply to yourself or someone else?”

Keith stays silent.

A flower of hope blooms through the stone in Lance’s chest, but he quickly stomps it back into the concrete. Even if it does apply to his situation, he could be thinking Shiro doesn’t like him, or even if he doesn’t like Shiro, that doesn’t mean he’ll like _Lance_.

~~_Like you’d ever be enough for him-_ ~~

“Okay,” Lance softly says when the silence carries on for too long. “But that definitely sounds like something that should’ve happened at least once. I mean, I’m sure you’ve heard of Unrequiteds being in a relationship with their soulmate before their soulmate admits that they never actually reciprocated the bond. Those situations suck, though, honestly.”

“Okay,” Keith says, nodding to himself before getting up. “Thanks.”

“No problem,” Lance replies.

The door closes behind Keith.

“Anything for you.”

♡|♡

At this point, Lance knows he’s gotten too attached.

But what else are you supposed to do, when you’re destined to love someone?

So Lance falls.

So fast, and so hard, he doesn’t think he’ll ever recover.

~~(He knows he won’t, but he tells himself otherwise.)~~

♡|♡

About a week after their conversation, Keith comes storming into Lance’s room looking heavily conflicted.

“Did I forget to lock the door?” Lance mumbles to himself before rubbing in the last bit of his face cream.

Keith kicks off his shoes and throws them at the wall by the door before laying ramrod-straight on Lance’s bed, breathing heavily.

“Yo, Keith,” Lance practically yells from his adjoining bathroom before he walks out “I don’t care how emotionally distressed you are, don’t throw your stinky shoes at my walls!”

Keith huffs out a single laugh between breaths, smile true but brow furrowed. 

Lance sits down by his pillow, about a foot away from Keith’s head and looks towards the ceiling.

“So,” Lance says after a few moments only filled with Keith’s breathing. “What’s goin’ on?”

“Remember that conversation we had?”

“The one we agreed to not tell anyone about?”

“Yeah. That one.”

“I do,” Lance says, a single brow raised in curiosity. 

“Well,” Keith sighs out, before picking up his head a bit just to slam it back into the mattress. “I don’t think I like Shiro like I should.”

Lance’s breath hitches.

_’Don’t you dare celebrate about this, Keith’s obviously worried about this. No, stop you damn dancin’ mini-me-’_

“Oh,” Lance says, before swallowing audibly, trying to regain his composure. 

_’Fuckin’ stop! This isn’t something to celebrate.’_ Lance mentally turns off the bizarre tune that had been playing in his head and the mini-Lance disappears. _’Thank god.’_

“Why do you think that?” Lance asks once his brain stops being a hopeful ass.

“Because what you and Hunk said about our relationship really stuck with me. And it made me start to think, ‘Hey, what if everyone views your relationship as brothers for a reason?’” Keith says. “And then I started to think about how I felt about him, and not how society thinks I should like him, and I realized that our relationship is purely platonic-” Keith says before shaking his head. “No, purely familial. And now whenever I kiss him I feel like I’m gonna vomit and I don’t know what to do.”

“Well shit,” Lance says aloud, and he really didn’t mean to, but what else is he supposed to say to that? _’Hey, sorry you realized you don’t like your boyfriend but maybe you should date me instead?’_ Yeah. That’d go over well. 

Keith huffs out a breath-y laugh. “Yeah.” 

A silence covers the room, not quite comfortable, but more so contemplative. 

“So what are you gonna do about it?” Lance asks.

“I was hoping you could tell me.”

_’Oh yeah, because I won’t be biased **at all**.’_

“Well, there isn’t an easy solution to this. I think that in almost every situation one of you won’t be happy,” Lance says, and _’Yes! There’s another fucking person in this ordeal, you can’t only care for your own wishes here.’_

“Actually,” Keith says, looking away from Lance. “I was kinda hoping that maybe you could talk to him?”

“What?” Lance ask-yells, and he honestly didn’t mean to blurt it out, but who does Keith think he is?

Keith cringes.

“Just hear me out,” Keith says, looking towards Lance for a moment. Lance says nothing, and Keith takes that as an incentive to continue. “You can ask as a third party. If I literally say anything about this situation to him he will immediately get suspicious. Pidge is an ass, Hunk can’t keep a secret for his life, Coran is… Coran, and Allura doesn’t really understand human social standards. On top of that, you already know about the situation on a basic level!”

“Okay,” Lance says slowly. “But what am I supposed to do, go up to him and say ‘hey, what would you think if Keith didn’t love you? Oh, what, you’re gonna kabob me with your scary Galra arm? Okay.’? For some reason I feel like that won’t work.”

“No, I don’t want you to mention my feelings, I want you to ask him about his feelings for me.”

“What makes you think he’ll even answer?”

“You’re the heart of the team, Lance. You’re basically our goddamn therapist! Do you have any idea how great you are at keeping secrets, too? I’m pretty damn sure he’ll talk.”

“I mean,” Lance says hesitantly, “If you think so.”

“I do.”

“Okay then,” Lance says with a sigh. “I’ll do it.”

Keith sits up from his position and turns toward Lance. 

“Really?”

“Yeah,” Lance says. “I really don’t want you to keep storming into my room like this,” He tacks on, because he’s Lance, and he’s trying to give himself a logical explanation to his agreement. He refuses to accept the fact that it’s probably because it’s Keith. 

_~~He knows it’s Keith. He knows.~~ _

“Thank you,” Keith says, and straight-up wraps his arms around Lance’s shoulders.

Lance stays frozen for a second, because what? Keith is giving him a hug? But he hesitantly rubs his hand across Keith’s back, and Keith melts just a tad more. A few moments later, Keith pulls away.

“Seriously, Lance, you have no idea how much this means to me.”

“It’s fine. I can go do it now, if you want, and you can just stay here ‘til I get back,” Lance says, _’and sure, dumbass, invite Keith to stay in your room because that isn’t any kind of shit your brain can take and say ‘Keith likes you’.’_

“Sure," Keith says, backing up into the far corner of the bed, and relaxing slightly with a grateful smile. Lance can still tell he's tense, but he looks as if some of the weight has been lifted off of his shoulders.

Lance sits there for a moment before resigning himself to his fate.

He pushes himself off the bed, and heads towards his certain doom.

♡|♡

Shiro hears a knock on his door, interrupting his research on the next planet they’re visiting, but that’s about a day away, so he isn’t really irritated.

“Come in,” Shiro says, finishing the sentence on the tablet before looking up and seeing Lance awkwardly standing in his doorway. “Lance,” Shiro says, surprise lacing his voice. Lance doesn’t come to Shiro often. In fact, the only ones that do are probably Keith and Allura. Pidge and Coran stop by on occasion, but Lance is not a common visitor.

“Hi,” Lance says, nervously. “Can I come in?”

“Of course,” Shiro says with a kind smile. “I already said you could. I was just reviewing some files.”

“Oh,” Lance says, “If you’re busy then-” Lance continues, pointing backward and already halfway through the door. Shiro thinks Lance may be desperate to leave, but he thinks that whatever he’s about to say will be important. 

“No, it’s fine, they won’t be imperative until tomorrow.”

“Okay,” Lance says, hesitantly nodding and stepping far enough inside that the door closes behind him. 

A thick silence fills the room, and Shiro’s starting to get concerned before-

“How do you feel about Keith?” Lance rushes out in one breath.

Shiro blinks, taken by surprise.

“How do I feel… about Keith?” Shiro asks, a tad incredulous, but can you blame him? No one’s questioned him since the soulmate conversation, and before that, the beginning of Keith’s time at the Garrison. 

“Yep,” Lance says, attempting to become one with the wall opposite of Shiro.

“You don’t have to be afraid to ask me personal questions, Lance,” Shiro says with a soft smile. “We’re a team, and we should be open with each other,” he continues, before realizing how hypocritical that is of him. He doesn’t take it back, though. 

“Okay,” Lance says, sticking to one-word answers. 

“Well,” Shiro starts, before his facade finally breaks. “Obviously, we’re soulmates,” Shiro says. “Of the romantic variety,” he quickly tacks on before he starts to doubt himself. This is Lance, and he knows he can trust him to not share his following statement with Keith himself. “However-” 

The intercoms interrupt him.

“Paladins,” Allura’s voice says throughout the castle. “We are approaching the Blade of Marmora’s base.”

“Shoot,” Shiro says, standing up and immediately going into mission mode. “Sorry Lance, but this will have to wait.”

"Okay!" Lance practically yells, as if he's ecstatic that the conversation is over. Something tells Shiro someone put Lance up to this…

But Shiro will worry about it later. For now, he has to meet some hopefully-friendly Galra.

**♡|♡**

"Coran, how soon will we get to the Blade of Marmora's base?"

"Based on the coordinates Ulaz gave us," Coran responds, "we should be there within a few doboshes."

Lance watches as Hunk talks on about space tacos and food, vaguely keeping an eye on Keith in the corner of the room, who seems stressed. 

"Aw, now I'm hungry for breakfast," Lance whines in response to Hunk's delicious rant. 

"Guys, this is a serious mission," Keith interrupts. "We need to focus."

"We need to focus," Lance mockingly parrots, but sees that Keith barely reacts. Something is nagging Lance, like perhaps the soulmate issue isn't the only thing on Keith's mind…

****

♡|♡

****

****  


Lance was unsettled when they selected Keith and Shiro to go. With such a tense relationship on Keith's side, Lance really felt it was too early to do anything like that.

But this is war.

'Too early' is never an option. 

**♡|♡**

"I'm part Galra," Keith says to the group, still obviously injured and not in the Voltron armor. 

"What?" Allura asks. "Surely, this can not be right," She continues, looking towards Shiro. 

"It is," Shiro simply replies, and Lance notices that while Shiro's hand is on Keith, his hand is on Keith's upper back. 

Lance can't understand what it means right now. Is it because Keith is part Galra? Is it because… whatever Shiro was going to say before that announcement was that he didn't romantically like Keith too? Hell, is it supposed to be a chaste romantic gesture?

This is way too confusing. 

At least Keith looks comfortable.

Or, at least as comfortable as you possibly can be after finding out that one of your parents got freaky with an alien race that is (mostly) a warmongering species across space. 

So not very.

Allura storms out of the room.

"I will go after her," Coran says. 

The Voltron paladins remain in an awkward silence. 

"I am curious," A masked blade asks. "Have you met your soulmate or soulmates yet?"

"Uh," Keith says. "Shiro's my soulmate."

"How exactly does that work," The Blade responds, "With you being a half-breed?"

Lance winces. Isn't that a bit of crude phrasing?

"Um," Keith says, starting off with another statement of hesitation. "Well, do you know how human soulmates work?"

"Yes," The Blade responds. 

"How-" Lance interrupts, before being interrupted.

"Lance," Shiro reprimands with the single word. Lance cowers a bit. No talking, okie-dokie. Even if a Blade understands the soulmates of an obscure species. (Wait… if one of Keith’s parents was a Blade then the database might have human data-)

"Okay," Keith starts off. "So when I met Shiro my soulmate bond was just as a human bond should be, but the fact that you mentioned multiple soulmates is pretty interesting."

"Galrans can have multiple soulmates, and thus, you should be able to as well, if the universe shall deem it correct. However, finding a Galran's soulmate is difficult, and it may be very complicated, being mixed with your human biology."

"Complicated how?"

"Well," The Blade says, "Reported half-breeds have soulmate bonds on both ends of the scales, fully one species, or fully another. When the bond is mixed, however, it gets confusing on which aspects cross over."

"How do Galran's find their soulmate?" Keith asks. 

"When a Galran falls in love with their soulmate, whether that be romantic, platonic, or even familial, a symbol will burn into their wrist. It is something that represents the Galran's soulmate."

"That sounds similar to human soulmates," Lance offhandedly says. 

"Indeed," The Blade responds. "Though if your soulmate bond with the Black Paladin was a normal human bond, then it is possible that your Galran biology does not affect your soulmark whatsoever."

Keith lets out a sigh.

"Alright."

"Though I would not put your guard down, in terms of soulmates," The Blade continues. "Half-breeds of all sorts of species have had soulmate bonds where one bond was of one species while the other bond was that of the other species. It is possible you have one or more soulmates that you have a Galran bond with."

"Okay," Keith says with a nod, and if Lance isn't hallucinating, it looks like Keith is… pleased?

"I am going to go rest in my room with this new knowledge," Keith says, very formal.

"Understood," The Blade says in return.

With that, Keith leaves the room, Lance not far behind. 

"You sure as hell be headed to a healing pod," Lance says, "Or I _will_ kill you."

Keith stops.

"Coran can't set it up."

"Then I will!" Lance rebuttles. 

"Why would you want to do that for me?" Keith asks, finally turning around. "I'm part Galra."

"And I'm Cuban. The fuck does race have to do with anything?"

Keith blinks at him suddenly.

"What?"

"You're Keith," Lance says, "An impulsive idiot who is an incredible pilot and is the Red Paladin of Voltron."

"But I'm Galran-"

"Was that in my description?" Lance asks.

"No, but-"

"Then it doesn't define you."

"But-"

"Keith," Lance says, grabbing his shoulders, being wary of his wounds. "You're yourself, regardless of who your parents are. Nature versus nurture, right?"

Keith blinks a few times before a tear runs down his cheek.

Lance brings him into a gentle hug.

When they're done hugging, Lance forces Keith into a pod. 

Lance has to wash his shirt, but he doesn't mind. 

Fuck.

Lance might be in love.

**♡|♡**

"Shiro," Lance says.

"Lance," Shiro responds. 

They're walking down the hallway towards the dining hall. 

"What were you going to say earlier?" Lance asks. "Before we closed in on the Blade's base?"

Shiro takes in a breath and lets it out slowly. 

"Obviously we're romantic soulmates," Shiro says.

"As you said earlier," Lance points out. 

"But sometimes it doesn't feel," Shiro says, pausing for a moment. "Right."

Lance has to stop himself from stalling in the hallway completely or letting out a 'whoop' of joy. 

"How so?" Lance asks instead, voice a tad strained. 

"It just doesn't feel like we should be romantic soulmates. I feel like we should be soulmates, yes, but I think it should be platonic, or even familial."

"Wow," Lance says in response. 

"Don't tell anyone about this!" Shiro suddenly rushes out. "It would break Keith's heart and I'd hate to be the cause of it."

"Alright," Lance responds. 

He doesn't mean it.

**♡|♡**

Lance barges into Keith's room, and if it could, the door probably would've slammed.

Keith looks up from his blade at the commotion. 

"Uh," Keith says. "Hello?"

The door shuts behind Lance.

"Shiro doesn't love you romantically, either."

"What?" Keith says, eyes so hopeful.

"Yeah, when I talked to him he said it felt like you guys should be soulmates, but not the romantic kind."

"Oh thank God," Keith says. 

"Man, if you're thanking God you must _really_ be thankful."

"I am," Keith responds. "Thank you so much, Lance, you have no idea how much this relieves me," He continues, getting up and walking out the door. 

When the door closes behind Keith, Lance mumbles to himself. 

"I think you'd be surprised, how much I can relate."

**♡|♡**

The next time Lance sees Keith and Shiro, they seem a lot less tense.

He supposes they must've figured it out. 

And that's probably why they called the whole team here.

"Keith and I are no longer dating," Shiro says, and everyone blinks in surprise.

"Not 'broken up'?" Pidge asks, using finger quotes accordingly. 

"I mean," Keith responds. "I guess, but it doesn't really feel like it, since it was a mutual understanding."

"Granted, understanding Keith's Galran heritage helped out a ton."

"Yeah," Keith responds. "We talked about it, and we think what happened is that instead of how platonic bonds form, which is immediately, my Galran genes decided it shouldn't be revealed until we were close - which just happens to be synonymous with romantic bonds."

"That makes sense," Hunk says, nodding. 

"Glad you finally figured it out," Lance said with a smile. 

Everyone turns to him. 

"Uh," Lance says, seeing the eyes on him. "What?"

"Just," Pidge says, adjusting their glasses, "the way you phrased it implied you already knew."

Lance glances over towards Keith and sees no resistance.

"Well, I did."

Everyone is silent in confusion for a moment, except for the happy no-longer-couple. 

"Uh," Hunk says, "How?"

"Keith came to me, probably because of my infinite knowledge on soulmates," Lance says, pausing a moment to puff out his chest. "But he was concerned about how he didn't like Shiro like he should, and asked me if unrequited unmatcheds have occurred. And they've never been recorded, but I'm sure they've happened. Anyways, that obviously wasn't the case, since it was just messy genes fucking with their soulmarks, so the bond was misread. Happy endings all around," Lance finishes with a smile.

( _"Except for me,"_ Lance doesn't add.)

**♡|♡**

Lance isn't as bothered about his unrequited bond as he was at the start. He doesn't know if it's subconscious hope or what, but honestly, Lance believes it's just because he wants Keith to be happy.

Even if it's not with him.

Because that's the nature of unrequited love in any universe, soulmates or not. 

You just want them to be happy.

The method, while it may upset you, doesn't matter. 

And that's enough for Lance.

It really is.

**♡|♡**

Shiro's gone.

Shiro's ~~dead~~ missing.

Shiro's ~~never coming back~~ gonna come back soon, but no one knows when.

It has wrecked all of them.

But Keith especially. 

Lance is really concerned about him. He's training through all hours of the day, and Lance ~~wants to see him smile~~ is nervous he's going to pass out one day, fighting the Gladiator on a mode that is ruthless. 

_Clank._

Lance sighs as another hit goes to the Gladiator. 

"Stop simulation," Lance says, fully stepping into the training room and letting the doors close behind him. 

Keith snaps his head over to him, looking absolutely feral.

Sadly enough, this is a sight Lance has grown used to. 

"Eat," Lance commands, shoving a bowl of food goo with a spoon stuck in it under Keith's nose. After Keith hesitantly grabs the bowl, Lance shoves the juice pouch in Keith's free hand. 

Lance stands there for a moment, arms crossed, waiting for Keith to take a bite. 

Keith hesitantly walks over to the bench along the wall of the room, sits, then places the juice pouch to his right. Under Lance's stern gaze, Keith picks up the spoon and shoves the spoon into his mouth. Lance is honestly a little shocked when Keith doesn't even wince. 

Once Keith takes a few more bites and Lance still hasn't moved, he moves the juice pouch to the left, an invitation for Lance to sit down. One that Lance takes. 

Once Lance is settled, Keith starts to talk through mouthfuls of goop.

"Thamfs," He mumbles out. 

"Ew," Lance says in response. "At least swallow first."

Keith swallows down, and _now_ he winces.

Lance isn’t very happy with himself when he finds it cute, but this is what he resigned himself to. He lost the fight before it even began, and he’s okay with that. It took awhile but he’s ~~not~~ okay with it. 

“You been in here all day?” Lance asks, and he knows the answer. 

“Yeah,” Keith says after taking a sip from his juice pouch. He seems a lot more lucid now instead of a ‘slicey-slice-boom-dead’ robot. 

“You should really get some sleep,” Lance says, knowing it’s fruitless.

“Yep,” is Keith’s simple reply.

Typical.

“Are you even listening to me?” Lance asks.

“Totally.”

Lance’s mouth falls into a thin line.

Keith glances at Lance for a moment before giggling a little bit. Lance ~~tries to ignore~~ ignores the butterflies that flutter through his chest. 

“Yeah,” Keith says after finally calming down. “I’m listening.” 

“And you’re going to get some rest?” Lance asks in a sarcastic-disbelief kind of way.

Keith opens his mouth before closing it again.

“Actually,” Keith says after a moment of contemplation. “I probably will.”

Lance’s eyes nearly bulge out of his head. 

“Seriously?”

“Yeah,” Keith responds. “My movements were getting sloppy and this food is making me tired.”

"I can't believe I just got the great Keith Kogane to stop training," Lance says in disbelief.

"You wanna go?" Keith asks. "Right here, right now? The equipment's right here-"

"Nonono-" Lance says, waving his hands around. "I'd kick your ass in this condition, anyway. Seriously, get some rest."

Keith rolls his eyes but nods anyways, swallowing his last spoonful of goop.

**♡|♡**

"You have fun gettin' a brick wall to sleep?" Pidge asked after glancing up from their coding to see Lance in the doorway of the kitchen.

"Uh…" Lance stated, still in shock.

Honestly, after he literally witnessed Keith fall asleep (yes, he actually went after him. And watched him fall asleep. What kind of masochist is Lance? We'll never know), his brain just seemed to cease to function.

At Lance's weird reaction Pidge looked up from their computer and actually stopped their typing. Which they basically never did. 

"You okay there, dude? It's okay that you didn't get him to sleep, we've all tried-"

"That's the thing," Lance says, some brain function returning. "He actually went to his room and slept. Ate all the food goo, too."

Pidge stares at him for a moment.

"Ha ha,'' Pidge says robotically. "Prank of the year, ladies, gentlemen, and those that don't give a fuck about gender."

(They both sit there for a moment, waiting for a reprimand for Pidge's language. Once they realise Shiro ~~is gone~~ isn't going to scold them, the conversation continues with a droop to their shoulders.)

"I'm serious. I actually went into his room to watch him fall asleep to make sure he wasn't fucking with me."

"Oh my non-existent-God," Pidge says. "You're serious."

"One-hundred percent."

"How."

"I don't know," Lance simply responds.

**♡|♡**

"Why are we so unsure that Shiro is gone or dead?" Lance asks one day at a meeting on the bridge.

"Because there's no way of knowing so…?" Pidge says, looking at Lance like he's crazy.

"Keith and Shiro are soulmates,” Lance says, and Keith freezes. “He should know if Shiro is dead or alive." 

Everyone suddenly turns to Keith.

"He's right," Allura says, glaring at Keith. "You should know, so why are you withholding information?"

Keith looks at the ground and kicks at the floor.

"I'm afraid of what I'll see," Keith responds, voice quiet.

Allura's glare drops and Lance let's out a soft breath before giving Keith a small smile. 

"That's okay," Lance says, but his smile drops. "But wouldn't it be better to know now? Like ripping off a band-aid."

Keith closes his eyes for a bit, head facing downwards, before letting out a sigh. Keith opens his eyes, picks his head up, and peels his right glove off.

"What the fuck?" Keith asks, incredulous. 

"What?" Lance asks, walking over to Keith to see his soulmark and…

Yeah.

What the fuck.

Keith's mark has ripples of purple through it while the rest is grey. And it's pulsing. Like, actively moving.

"Uh," Lance says, brain short-circuiting. 

"What?" Pidge yells. "It's a simple yes or no! Is Shiro dead?"

"Nes," Lance responds, still staring at Keith's mark.

"Nes?!" Pidge asks, getting annoyed. "What the fuck do you mean-"

"It's _pulsing_ ," Keith says. 

"Uh," Hunk says. "Lance?"

"I…" Lance says, hesitating. "Don't know. This wasn't ever mentioned in the class."

"What does this mean?" Keith asks.

"Uh, maybe that he's in limbo?" Lance asks. "Like he's not dead, but he's not alive?"

"How does that work?" Allura asks. 

"I don't know," Lance says, mouth in a thin line. "But I feel like Shiro is no longer bound physically to this world."

"So he's like a Kami?" Keith questions, brow furrowed. 

"Kami-?" Lance gets out before being interrupted. Lance doesn't think Keith would be able to explain it anyways, because the word sounded unpracticed.

"So what, he's a computer?" Pidge asks. 

"I don't know!" Lance suddenly yells, throwing his arms in the air. "I don't fucking know! This is as confusing to me as it is to you, so stop looking at me like I'm some kind of know-it-all!"

Everyone freezes at his outburst, and Lance sets his hands at his sides.

"Sorry," He says. 

"No," Keith says. "We were questioning you too much. It was completely warranted."

"But still-" Lance says.

"But nothing," Keith says, turning to Lance with a stern look. "It wasn't your fault, so stop trying to take the blame. We all have our limits. Hell, I'm nearly positive Pidge only knows one kind of code."

"Yeah," Pidge says quietly in the background. "I transfer everything to Java."

"O...Okay," Lance says reluctantly. 

"Good," Keith responds. 

"So what should we do?" Pidge asks. "Should we keep looking or what?"

"I think that we need to find a new Black Paladin," Allura says. 

Everyone looks at her with wide eyes, and she quickly panics as well.

"Temporarily! We don't know what's happened to Shiro, and unfortunately the Galra will not wait for us to figure it out."

"The Empire," Lance corrects. 

Allura blinks at him for a moment. 

"Yes," Allura says, hesitantly, "The Galran Empire."

Lance nods at that. 

"So how do we go about this new-Paladin-thing?" Lance asks.

**♡|♡**

(Lance doesn't think _'I've already lost so much, please give this to me, to guide the people I love and the universe along with them to safety.'_ when they're trying to find a new Black Paladin.)

(He doesn't.)

**♡|♡**

They're all hanging around in the lounge when _it_ happens.

They've started to get used to their new dynamic, and Keith and Lance have grown closer. It hurts Lance, but that's okay. Keith needs support right now, and that's what Lance will give him, even if he gets nothing he wants in return. 

Anyways, they've been given a chance to relax in the lounge for a bit. Who knows where Allura and Coran are, but the rest of the team ~~minus Shiro~~ are simply chilling until Allura calls them to duty again. 

Keith's flipping his knife over in his hand, and Lance doesn't know what to make of it. He looks rather contemplative, so Lance is keeping an eye on him, but for the most part Lance is focused on Pidge and Hunk. 

Pidge is doing _something_ on their laptop (who knows what they even do on there) while Hunk is gushing over the new ingredients they got on a recent diplomatic mission. 

"Man," Hunk says, "I bet I could even make maple syrup! Imagine that, we could have space pancakes!"

"Man," Lance says in return. "I could totally go for some pancakes. It's been, like, years since I've had some. The Garrison ones don't count."

"Obviously," Pidge says, scoffing. "They could barely be called pancakes. I'm pretty damn sure they just threw them in the oven."

Hunk shudders. 

"Oh man, I do not miss the Garrison's food."

"I walked by the kitchen once," Keith says. "They actually threw the pancake batter into a fryer."

"What?!" Hunk ask-yells.

"How does that even work?" Lance asks. 

"I dunno," Keith says. "I just saw what I saw."

"I would take food goo over Garrison food any day."

"Yeah, I think one day someone poured chunks out of their milk."

Pidge fake-retches. 

"Bleh."

"That happened in my Elementary school," Keith says. "They never switched out the milk, just added things in front of it."

"Jesus," Lance says. "Why?" 

"I will punch whoever did that," Hunk says, deadly serious. "Nobody messes with my food."

"Yeah," Lance says. "If any one does, I'll sic Keith onto them."

"Yeah, but Galra Keith is too funny to scare them," Hunk says, voice lilted in a joking tone, but Lance can tell there's some truth behind it.

Lance looks over to Hunk. 

"Hunk," Lance says, deadly serious. "Keith has a sword."

"Yeah, but Galra Keith-"

Lance makes a confused sound. 

"What do you mean 'Galra Keith'?" Lance asks, putting air quotes around 'Galra Keith'. "Keith is Keith."

"Yeah," Hunk says, "But once Keith turned Galra-"

"Keith didn't _turn_ into a Galran being, Hunk," Lance interrupted, voice beginning to drip with acid. "Keith has and always will be Galran. It's a part of his very blood. But, race doesn't matter. You know how long it took the Human race to accept the fact that all Humans are equal, and they don't act one way or another because of race. The same thing applies to Keith. Just because he's a part of a particular alien race, it doesn't change anything about him other than his biology. I expected better from you, buddy," Lance finishes off, voice becoming softer after scolding his best friend.

"You're right," Hunk says with a guilty frown. "Sorry, Keith."

"It's… fine," Keith replies hesitantly. 

"I understand now that I have made a grave mistake," Allura says, the foreign voice startling the entire room. 

Allura walks over and kneels in front of Keith, who is sitting in a way that makes them face to face. Lance would be jealous of their proximity if Keith didn't look so constipated. 

"You are still the same person, Keith," Allura says, "And I severely misjudged you. I should've never acted the way I did. Hearing that Humans previously had misjudgement based upon ethnicity is something I find shameful, and I have realized that is what I have done to you. I only hope you may forgive me."

"Uh," Keith says, glancing around the room, looking panicked. Lance has to cover his mouth to stop himself from laughing. Given the situation… it would be rather inappropriate. "Sure. Yeah. You're, uh, forgiven."

Allura smiles. 

"Thank you, Keith."

With that Allura turns to the other applicants of the room. Specifically, Pidge and Hunk.

"Pidge, Hunk," Allura says, "Coran says he may need assistance with the simulation. Something about gibberish?"

"Whoops," Pidge says, laughing a bit. "Looks like Coran just got introduced to Java."

"I bet he tore apart the board to see if there was some weird parasite," Hunk says, shaking his head while getting up. 

With that the two leave the room, Hunk giving an apologetic look and a pat on the shoulder to Keith.

Allura turns to Lance.

"Lance," Allura says, "Thank you. Without your insight, I find it may have taken much longer for me to see logic."

"Anything for you, m'lady," Lance says with a dramatic wink.

Allura shakes her head and rolls her eyes before leaving the room.

With that, Keith and Lance are left alone.

"You, uh," Lance says. "You okay there, buddy?"

"Thank you," Keith says, still looking constipated, but less so than earlier. "I think that even I needed to hear that."

"No problem," Lance says, with a soft smile. Wow, he is so gone for this boy.

They both remain in comfortable silence for a bit, Keith's expression doing some weird dance before he suddenly yelps out in pain and grabs his left wrist. 

"Keith?" Lance says, slightly standing up and putting his hands out in front of him, not sure how to help. "Is everything okay?"

Keith hisses out in pain once more before it seems to relent, his pained face turning to a grimace before finally becoming hesitant confusion. 

After seeing that Keith is out of pain, Lance hesitantly sits back down. 

"What was that?" Lance asks.

"I don't know," Keith responds, taking his glove off. 

Once Keith's glove is off, however, Lance doesn't know what to do with Keith's reaction.

"What the _fuck_?" Keith cries out. "The fuck is this?"

"What?" Lance asks, leaning over to try and see Keith's wrist. 

Suddenly, Keith seems to come to some kind of conclusion that seems to leave him with horrific clarity. 

"Nothing!" Keith says, pulling his glove on and dashing out of the room before Lance can say another word. 

"That wasn't weird at all," Lance says to the empty room before heading off towards the training room. Coran's reaction to anything human is typically hilarious.

**♡|♡**

After that event, Keith avoids Lance.

Which is weird, considering he just stopped the people around him from being mildly racist toward him, but whatever. 

_~~It's not whatever.~~ _

_~~Lance misses Keith.~~ _

_~~Why is he destined to love someone for eternity, so much so that it was etched into his very soul, but that person doesn't feel the same?~~ _

_~~What did Lance do to deserve this?~~ _

**♡|♡**

"Lance," Keith says, very withdrawn, standing in his doorway.

Lance looks up to him. 

"Keith?" Lance asks in disbelief.

"Can I come in?" Keith asks in return. 

"Uh, yeah," Lance says, still baffled, and finishes painting his last nail. He quickly wipes the nail on a napkin nearby to make sure it dried (and of course it did, it's Altean nail polish) before gesturing to his bed, offering Keith a place to sit down.

"Hi," Keith says once he awkwardly sits down. 

"Hey yourself," Lance says, trying to hide his giddy smile because _oh my God Keith is talking to him_. 

"Sorry I've been avoiding you," Keith says, straight to the point but not looking into Lance's eyes. 

"Uh," Lance says, a little shocked at the bluntness before he shakes his head. He's _Keith_. Of course he's blunt. "It's okay, though can I ask why?"

"I had to think," Keith simply says, and the room remains silent for a moment.

"About…?" Lance questions once he realizes Keith isn't going to continue.

"Soulmates," Keith said, and Lance stiffens. 

"Um, why?" Lance asks. 

At that, Keith finally meets Lance's eyes and takes in a deep breath. 

"So I know you're an Unrequited," Keith starts off, Lance's mouth turning into a thin line. "But I want to know who your soulmate is," Keith finishes.

"No," Lance simply responds.

Keith suddenly turns desperate, moving forward and clinging onto Lance's arms.

"Please, Lance. Who is your soulmate?"

"None of your fucking business," Lance snaps back.

 _'Why do you want to know, anyway? You want to set up some dumb double date? Don't think that'd go well since I'd be staring at you the whole time. Or, even worse, maybe you just want to be my wingman. Ultimate friend-zone,'_ Lance thinks.

Keith sighs, letting go of Lance's arms. 

"Can you at least tell me how you feel about them?" Keith softly asks, no longer meeting Lance's eyes. 

"I…" Lance hesitates, looking off to the side before steeling himself. "I love them. And I know that I will for the rest of my life," Lance finishes, staring at Keith.

Lance attempts to not look starry-eyed as it finally sinks in, anger dissipating to be replaced with acceptance.

 _'Yeah,'_ Lance thinks. _'You're it for me. I'll never love anyone else, but because it's you, you impulsive asshole, I don't mind. I just want to be there for you, even if that means watching you fall in love with someone else. I know that this is going to end with me broken-hearted, but I don't care as long as it doesn't end with **you** broken-hearted.'_

"Do you ever think that, if given the chance of someone loving you, you would take it?" Keith asks, and wow, that was not something Lance was expecting. 

"Probably not," Lance says after a moment of contemplation. 

"But there's a chance you would?"

"Why do you care, Keith?" Lance asks, his fuse starting to shorten. Lance already shared a decent amount with Keith and is not interested in sharing anything else. 

Wow, has this conversation been an emotional roller coaster.

Keith bites his lip.

"Because…" Keith says, trailing off. "Because I want to ask you on a date."

Lance crashes. Like, straight-up, car-flipping train wreck crashes. 

"Uh," Lance says, staring at Keith, eyes wide. 

Keith sighs and starts to grumble to himself.

"Sure, Keith, ask Lance out, it'll be fine," Keith says in a sarcastic tone under his breath. "Not like he'll stare at you like you're crazy or something."

"Why?" Lance suddenly asks. This seriously cannot be true. There's just no way.

"What?" Keith says, snapping his head up and looking absolutely incredulous. 

"Why are you asking me out?" Lance asks, voice sounding a bit too desperate for his liking. But Lance has been offered a chance he never thought he'd get, and while he isn't going to accept unless he knows Keith's motives are kind, it's not something Lance is about to let slip through his fingers, either.

Keith closes his eyes and breathes in and out. 

"Because you're my soulmate," Keith says, and this time Lance's brain explodes. 

"That isn't possible," Lance says through his shock. 

_'You're soulmates with Shiro, not me, it's unrequited-'_

Keith takes off his left glove and shows him a glowing blue mark on his wrist. 

"Why didn't you tell me?" Lance asks, because seriously, something is not matching up here. Why would he withhold this information for so long? How does he have two soulmarks? Because Lance feels like having two soulmarks would be a big, flashing sign that Keith was part alien.

"I got scared," Keith says in response, putting his glove back on. "I knew you had a soulmate and when the mark showed up two days ago I didn't really know what to do-"

"Wait, wait, wait," Lance says, waving his hands around. "What do you mean that the mark _showed up_ two days ago?"

Keith looks down. 

"Um," Keith says. "Well I think it's a Galran soulmark," Keith continues, playing with the elastic bands within his gloves. 

Lance takes in a breath for a moment, as if he's going to say something, before he falls silent. Because what. The. Fuck?

"Oh my God," Lance says, blankly staring at his sheets. 

"I know it's a lot," Keith says, "And I know you love your soulmate or something, but since it was unrequited I was hoping we could try something?"

When Lance looks up at Keith with wide eyes, Keith panics.

"You don't have to, of course!" Keith suddenly cries out, attempting to backtrack. "It's totally okay if you don't want to try anything between us, and I'm sorry I assumed otherwise, but I just wanted to let you know the option was there."

Lance's eyes finally return to a normal size.

_'Fuck, he's so cute, and he's **mine**. Oh my god, he's mine. Oh my- holy shit, we're soulmates.'_

"We're soulmates," Lance reiterates via mumbling. 

"What?" Keith asks. "What do you mean we're soulmates? You're my soulmate, but I'm not yours-"

Lance rolls up his sleeve to reveal a red mark, one identical to the one on Keith's arm. 

"What-"

"We're soulmates, Keith," Lance says, looking toward him with a smile. 

"We're soulmates," Keith parrots, shocked. 

They both bask in a happy silence for a few minutes, just enjoying the bliss of knowing they have a requited bond, before Keith speaks up. 

"How long?" 

"Huh?" Lance asks. 

"How long have you known I was your soulmate?" Keith clarifies. 

Lance raises a hand to rub the back of his neck.

Yep, he really should've expected this. It's the obvious first question in a situation like this.

"Well, uh, remember that day that I found out you and Shiro were soulmates?"

"Yeah," Keith responds after a moment of thinking, nodding hesitantly.

"Well, it was right before that. Like five seconds before," Lance continues, kind of stiff. _'Please don't be mad, or concerned, or guilty- hell, just don't feel any negative emotion about this. **Please**.'_

"That's," Keith says, excitement turning to horror. "That's a long time."

"A year and a half."

"Jesus, Lance, how did you keep this to yourself?"

Mkay. That went well.

Kind of.

Could've been worse?

But Keith looks really guilty about this. Shit.

"I vaguely told Hunk about it, but nothing about you specifically. And I did talk about being an Unrequited with you those few times," Lance says with an awkward smile. Hopefully that will stop whatever guilt Keith feels. Something suddenly registers in Lance's mind before his eyes widen. "Oh my god, I'm not an Unrequited."

"You're not an Unrequited," Keith says back, smile so wide Lance is afraid Keith's face will break. Looks like Keith isn't guilty anymore. Or… forgot about it already. This has been a complicated conversation.

"Can I kiss you?" Lance asks.

"Hell yes," Keith says in response, breathless. 

They lean into each other and their lips lock.

It's not perfect.

Of course it's not. 

But they have all the time in the universe to get better.

**♡|♡**

Lance’s heart never shattered, and it managed to survive as long as Keith needed to figure things out.

And while it took a while, it can be fixed.

A shattered heart cannot be put back together, but a broken heart can be mended.

And Lance, with the help of Keith, found that mending a broken heart is much easier than it may seem.

It turns out the only thing it needs is requited love and a bit of time.

**Author's Note:**

> I really hope you enjoyed the fic!
> 
> Speaking of which, I'm thinking of making a sequel in Keith's POV? It would go further into detail about Keith and Shiro's relationship, showing how they met, and would further detail the struggles that Keith went through during the events of this fic. It would probably be titled "Heart as Black as the Soil Where Your Love Grows" or "A Shattered Heart can not be Put Back Together" or something like that. Okay I'm not sure about the title, but I just did a minor brainstorm and now I really like those titles lol.
> 
> I also have some ideas for other fics to make this a full-blown series, but those are really vague and will only occur if I do the Keith POV sequel.
> 
> Honestly, whether or not I do a sequel will most likely be dependent on myself, but a few comments saying if you'd like one or not wouldn't hurt. 
> 
> BTW: The reason why Alteans are less likely to be Unrequiteds is because a lot of polyamory relationships in humans result in Unrequited bonds. Alteans can have multiple marks, but because humans can’t it gets very complicated. Obviously some people are meant to love others even though it’s unrequited, thus Alteans still have Unrequiteds, they’re just much more rare.
> 
> Also! In case the ending wasn’t as clear as I was hoping it was, not everything was fixed at once. They were extremely happy, but Lance went through a lot of hurt throughout his time as an Unrequited, and it takes a while for Lance to feel stable in their relationship. I might even expand upon that in a sequel.
> 
> Oh, right, comment message:
> 
> I don't respond to comments. It's not because I don't enjoy them, I actually read them and scream like an ecstatic banshee, but it's because I have some horrible anxiety and I need to read the fics I post at least five times over before I actually post them and I REALLY don't want to have to do that with comments, too. That's part of the reason why my fics take so long to get out, actually. Anxiety sucks, man.


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